Ways to stay interested to travel : Motivated people can achieve anything they set their minds to especially to travel, when you are busy working and living life while your family and friends disparage your ideas, you’re overwhelmed planning your trip, or maybe just burnt out from being on the road already?
Motivation is not an unlimited fountain but a series that needs to be kept exciting. Life gets in the way and hinders our plans or throws us off track. If we do not pay attention, that energy becomes depleted and our travel goals fall by the wayside. All of a sudden, years have gone by and you are still nowhere near reaching the travel goals you have dreamed. Most of the time we talk about travelling but the ideas keep delayed because “stuff coming up.” It is not just the waiting to travel that requires motivation, you can burn out and get off track while on the road too. It is something that happens to lots of long-term travelers.
When you plan your trips, you do not think about the long hours on a drives, the delays, the annoying airports, dealing with snorers in hostel dorms, fending off tours and scammers, and all the other things that will suck the energy and joy out of your experience. Whether you are planning a Safari or are already on the road, it is important to find ways to stay motivated. Today, I want to share seven tips on how to stay motivated to travel whether you are planning your trip or feeling a little burnt out on the road:
Hold yourself accountable
The best thing you can do to stay focused is to be held accountable. Being accountable to others will help make sure that you do not fall off the wagon. They will help keep you focused on your goal, and the social pressure to stay on track will provide some extra motivation to follow through. Whether that is betting money, having someone check in on you, keeping track of goals, or having someone help you plan, just being held accountable will force you to stay focused, even on those days you don’t feel like it!
Devote time
Stuff always seems to come up, for example, plan to visit Iceland in May, suddenly, May was here and I was busy. Or maybe you decide today is the day you are going to plan your trip but then you forget you have laundry to do. My solution? Pick a day and time you are normally not busy (i.e., on Facebook) and devote that time to planning your trip. Make it a consistent part of your schedule and develop a habit so that it does not feel like a task you “have” to do; it becomes just something you do automatically.
Read travel blogs
Reading about other travelers’ adventures can show you that it is easier to travel than you thought, provide advice and tips on the art of travel, and teach you about places you have never heard of. One day you will get sick of living vicariously through others, and you will go out and create your own travel stories. They will show you that yes, travel is realistic, practical, and financially possible.
Read travel books
While reading travel blogs is great, travel books are even better because they cut deep into a destination and open it up in a way a short blog post cannot. In that same vein, be sure to read books about the destination you are visiting so you can get a deeper understanding of the place. You cannot understand the location is present if you do not understand its past.
Learn a language
Join a class and pick up a language you might use on the road. Once you have started learning the language, you will hate to waste your new skill. The only way to use it is to travel to where they speak it! Here are some apps and resources to help you learn:
Take a break
If you have been on the road for a while, you have probably burnt out a bit. Travel is not always rainbows and unicorns, and spending a lot of time on the road can lead to burnout. That is going to sap your motivation and might even have you thinking about home.
Meet other travelers
Sometimes it can be hard to stay motivated if the people around you are not supportive of your desire to travel. If you are struggling, here are some suggestions:
